Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Lost, Girl

Fandom is hard work, yo. So, on Monday, I put up a little post of AfterEllen of an exclusive unused extra from the “Lost Girl” Season 4 DVD set. It featured Zoie Palmer being lovely, per usual. And it was a nice little shout-out to all the LGBT fans. So I was happy.

And then I read the comments, and I was not happy. Comments tend to have that effect. (Not here, you’re all lovely. Never change.)

Here’s the thing, once a season is over, I check out a little on that fandom. I don’t stop being a fan, I just don’t follow what is happening amongst its fans as closely. What I care about, and pay attention to, the most is what we actually see on the screen. I am in it for the stories. So when there isn’t anything new to watch, I sort of hibernate.

But the Lost Girl fandom has awoken this groggy bear from her restorative sleep.

So here is me wading into your concerns in the comments. (FYI: This is verbatim the comment I posted on my AE post, but wanted to share it here as well).

Some clarifications. First, I am not the editor in chief of AfterEllen, I just freelance for the site like the other writers. I do run my own personal blog in my free time (cough, dorothysurrenders.com, cough). Second, writing about lesbian representation in pop culture is not my full-time job. I have another job that keeps the lights on and takes up most of my waking hours. This writing is something I do because I enjoy it and care about the stories that flicker across our screens. Third, people may have indeed tweeted me, butI get a lot of tweets and do not monitor my feed 24/7. I do vaguely remember being tweeted about the cuts, but at the time was swamped and simply couldn’t investigate further. I checked, and no one ever emailed me about the situation. Fourth and finally, I do not regularly read dedicated fandom sites, regardless of the fandom, because – again – the time. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy and support the various fandoms I write about; I most definitely do. But sometimes I can miss large discussions/controversies happening among fans behind the scenes.

So, with that in mind, I ask that you not project nefarious intention on what I do and don’t write about. Sometimes, I just don’t know and/or don’t have time. And I apologize for that. Believe it or not, I try to also fit a life away from the keyboard into my life.

From the commenters here it seems the chief complaint is about the cut made between the Showcase/Syfy versions of the show. I am sensitive to such cuts, but honestly have not been keeping track of their extent over the past four season. All of my recaps are done off the Showcase versions and (again, just being honest) sometimes I don’t even get around to watching the Syfy version. I would like to do my own research on the topic, but again that takes time and a stopwatch.

But I do think this is a fair topic to bring up, especially closer to the beginning of the fifth season to remind Showcase/Syfy that we are paying attention to what they are editing and how the characters and relationships are being portrayed.

I tend to pay attention, first and foremost, to what is shown to us on the screen. I enjoy Lost Girl because, since its inception, it has been the only show currently airing on English-speaking television with a bisexual female character as its singular lead. (Since then, Orange Is the New Black has also come along – thank goodness – to add to that list.) I believe the writers, producers and actors have all been sensitive and responsive to the LGBT community. Sure, there have been some missteps. But this is not a show that has ever – in my opinion – shied away from its sexuality nor dismissed its LGBT fans. Questions about edits and promotion may exist and should be addressed, but for me they do not ultimately detract from what I believe is an overwhelmingly positive show for LGBT representation.

And those are my two cents. Thanks for your passion and support. I truly appreciate you guys.

10 comments:

I couldn't agree with you more, I only watch the Canadian cuts too so totally missed all of this controversy, I was shocked when I read the AE comments.People have a fair point in relation to cuts but what are they giving you grief for?

Love you Ms Snarker. I understand your surprise by the comments at AE. I was following the concerns that people were sharing with each other and with both SyFy and Showcase. A online petition was even organized to address these Lost Girl concerns. I can say imfatically, that our concerns were laughed at and disregarded by the straight viewers of LG. They could careless about discrimination if it did not apply to them personally. Often when the subject of how LG was handling Lauren's character and the cuts to her dialogue, many and I mean many were openly hostile to us.

People love your reviews and your blog. Sometimes we assume a person who is expressing themselves as a creative person, to also be an activist. I think lots of us who regularly visit the Lost Girl msg boards and have to defend Lauren's character constantly would like for more prominent people to give voice to this as well. I know you are not an employee do AE. But you have influence with them. It would be great if AE actually did a NEWS piece on the concerns many have with the continuing discrimination we feel LG / SyFy / Showcase shows to the LGBT community.

Oh? You had a life? How dare you! Well joke aside, I appreciate & love all the work you put into your blog and posts at AE. As a Showcase LG viewer, I had no idea how US folks view/watch the show, though I'd probably be sad about it too. P.S. Just saw the twitter post about the vid, it just didn't load for me, however I tried searching @ youtube, and a nice person already had it up & loading. So if anyone is having trouble viewing it, they can search & access it that way.

A Change.org petition it's been going around for some time, posted by Fans of Lost Girl USA. Don't know the succesess this is gonna have, because this Sy-Fy cuts have been goin' since season 1.

I'm sorry, Dorothy, because I know you will never support this, but less than 2 hours later as the show was aired in Showcase, it's already around in the web. So, VPN service seems like a good choice...